Milan Pantic

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Sidebar: A New Start on Old Murders in Serbia

Slavko Curuvija was killed 15 years ago, but Veran Matić, a veteran journalist of Serbia’s independent media, never forgot.

Curuvija, an influential independent newspaper owner in what was then Yugoslavia, was shot in the back on April 11, 1999, by two men outside his apartment building. Curuvija was well known for his criticism of President Slobodan Milosovic, and there was evidence implicating Milosovic’s intelligence services in the attack—but no one was ever brought to justice. Other murders of journalists in what was then Yugoslavia also went unsolved, including the 2001 fatal assault on crime reporter Milan Pantic, and the death of Radoslava Dada Vujasinovic. Vujasinovic, who investigated corruption in Milosovic’s government, was found in her apartment with gunshot wounds in 1994. Her death was labeled a suicide.

Nationalists suffered a series of political defeats in 2008 and responded by lashing out against independent journalists and liberal reformers with threats and physical attacks. A reformist-nationalist coalition government led by the conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica during the first half of the year and by liberal President Boris Tadic during the second half failed to adequately protect journalists from these abuses. The nationalists targeted independent journalists, rights activists, and reformist politicians for "betraying" Serbia, while police and prosecutors regularly turned a blind eye.

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On August 9, Cvetkovic, editor in chief of the independent radiotelevision station TNT in the city of Bela Crkva, about 100 km (62 miles) east of the capital, Belgrade, received two anonymous phone calls from an unidentified number. A male voice threatened to kill him and uttered profanities at him, the independent Belgrade-based broadcaster B92 reported. Cvetkovic believes the threats are in response to his station’s critical coverage of local authorities.

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Dear Prime Minister Kostunica:
The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply dismayed by the Serbian Interior Ministry's failure to promptly respond to a credible death threat made against Grujica Spasovic, editor-in-chief of the Belgrade-based independent daily Danas (Today). An anonymous telephone threat was made to the newspaper on June 11 after Danas reported that your government has identified the town where indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic is hiding. We call on you to ensure that the threat is thoroughly investigated and that appropriate protection is provided to Spasovic.

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Serbia and MontenegroPolitical paralysis consumed Serbia for much of 2004. Conservative reformists and ultranationalists argued over the bloody legacy of former President Slobodan Milosevic and refused to extradite Serbs indicted for war crimes to The Hague–based U.N. -tribunal. Amid a chaotic and polarized atmosphere, journalists were vulnerable to -intimidation from politicians, government agencies, businessmen, accused war criminals, and organized crime.

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Serbia's ruling reformist coalition, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, (DOS), struggled to come to terms with the legacy of corruption and extreme nationalism left by a decade of rule under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Political division in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, powerful organized crime groups, and political apathy kept the conflict-ridden DOS coalition on the brink of collapse after the assassination of the prime minister in March.

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During 2002, the intense political and personal
rivalry between Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica, a conservative
nationalist, and Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, a pragmatic
reformist, consumed politics in Serbia, the dominant republic in the
Yugoslav federation. The conflict, which stalled government reforms,
was further complicated
by negotiations between the two Yugoslav republics of Serbia and
Montenegro on transforming the Yugoslav federation into a union of two
sovereign states. The possibility that the Yugoslav presidency would no
longer exist forced Kostunica to run for the Serbian presidency in the
fall against a Djindjic ally, Miroslav Labus. Voter apathy was so high
that neither candidate garnered more than 50 percent of the electorate,
leaving the presidency empty at year's end.

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Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is concerned about threats made against Vukasin Obradovic, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Vranje-based weekly Novine Vranjske, and Goran Antic, a reporter with the publication, in retaliation for reporting allegations of...

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New York, April 11, 2002—On the third anniversary of the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) remains deeply concerned that the government has made no progress investigating the case.

On April 11, 1999, Curuvija, editor-in-chief of the Belgrade daily Dnevni Telegraf, was gunned down near his home in central Belgrade by two men wearing dark clothing and black masks.